Guide · Process
From diligence, against published and regulator-cited figures: New York LHCSA applications run 6–12 months. North Carolina: 90–180 days. Pennsylvania: 10–20 weeks. Illinois: a provisional license in about 90 days, then a 240-day provisional period. New Jersey: 30–60 days for the Health Care Service Firm registration. Your state's figure is on its state page, with its source.
It is true somewhere — a registration state with a clean application — and false almost everywhere a founder with a lease reads it. Guru timelines quote the fastest lane in the fastest state as if it were the national rule, because urgency sells courses.
Sequence backwards from it: entity, binder and insurance, application, survey window, then hiring. The two assets a long timeline eats are the lease (don't sign before the state allows) and the administrator (don't hire against a start date the state hasn't granted). A timeline is not a delay in your plan; it is the plan.
Dataset pages behind this guide: New York state page · North Carolina state page · Pennsylvania state page · Illinois state page · New Jersey state page · the full 50-state dataset (checked October 22, 2026).
Guides are general; verdicts are specific. The license checker applies your state's rules to your service mix, and the cost calculator prices your opening from the same dataset this guide cites.
The free checkers give you the verdict and the number. The Kit gives you the working papers: your state's application packet walked through in filing order, the policies-and-procedures binder spec (what your binder must contain — never a boilerplate binder), the administrator self-audit, the insurance & bond spec sheet, the Medicaid gate map, the franchise-vs-independent 10-year worksheets, and the payroll-runway planner.
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